My grandmother and mother come from Dothan, Alabama. I used to go to see my grandmother when I was a little boy. She had a farm and would show me what the pigs and cows and chickens did. (I was known for eating a lot of chicken, so the chickens usually ran away when I visited.) One animal I never understood was the donkey, because it was a stubborn, and to me, useless animal. My grandmother said, “The only way you get the donkey to do something is you gotta slap the donkey; you can’t entice it, you can’t bribe it; you have to slap the donkey.” Well, many people think that I’m not right to challenge this party, but I’m doing what Grandma taught me. I’m trying to slap this donkey, and I intend to slap this donkey until this donkey kicks George Bush out of the White House in 2004.- Al Sharpton, December 11, 2003.
Complexity Theory shows that small differences in initial conditions can lead to vast differences later on. And that is true of the left and right blogosphere. Both were born at roughly the same time, using the same technologies and operating in the same political environment. But they were born into a position of supporting government policy and we were born into opposing government policy. And that will have major consequences for how the blogospheres behave if, and when, the Democrats take some measure of power in Washington DC.
The left blogosphere is in the business of dissecting government pronouncements and lazy and misleading punditry and print-press articles. That is basically all we do. Yeah, we raise money and post guinea pigs and pandas and cats and dogs. But, our main function is to filter and vet the news. We are not in the business of supporting spin or glossing over government shortcomings. And that is why the Democrats are going to have a problem when they come into power. The blogosphere is going to expect them to be honest, incorruptable, and effective. We are also going to expect them to move to the left, not pander to the center. And we will be just as relentless with the Democrats as we have been with the Republicans. We are a beast that cannot change its stripes.
I see that both Markos and Chris Bowers have posts today that talk about the necessity for keeping a long-term view. This November election is just the beginning. No matter what happens, the left-wing blogosphere is going to continue to slap the donkey. Some will focus on policy, others will focus on the mechanics of the party. But one thing we will never be…we’ll never be mindless sycophantic cheerleaders for the governing party. It’s not in our DNA.
…But, our main function is to filter and vet the news. We are not in the business of supporting spin or glossing over government shortcomings. And that is why the Democrats are going to have a problem when they come into power. The blogosphere is going to expect them to be honest, incorruptable, and effective. …
Silly me. I naively have that expectation even when they are not in a position of power.
It’s startling to be reminded that we don’t know what the leftblogs will be like if Dems attain power, because they barely existed the last time that happened. I assume the split between the cheerleaders and the ideological will widen once Dems have lost the excuse of being a weak minority.
The more important hole in our political system is the lack of broad policy discussion/argument, and the blog form is not much good for that. The right has its bevy of thinktanks and foundations that amount essentially to lobbying arms of the corporations and rich fools who fund them. Their function is to formulate and market policy in a way that supports the far-right pols.
There is no real equivalent on the left. Even outfits like MoveOn, PFAW and so on are unlikely to spur debate on, for example, the state of American capitalism and how it could be improved or replaced. Or even something as straightforward as deep reform of the electoral system — there are too many Dems that would be scared off.
I hope you’re right, Boo, about the blogs holding Dems to account. But that’s only the surface of what needs to be done, and I don’t know where the rest will come from.
good points.
And not something I sought to address here. The left blogosphere is built on basic intellectual honesty, which is simply not the case on the right, where they are more concerned with reinforcing and amplifying the GOP message.
Flip it around and simply do not get the opposite. THat was my major point.
But your point is excellent. We are not the best platform for wonkery, and wonkery is useless anyway unless you have people in DC to push your wonkery.
Personally, I would think if anything the lefty blogs will be more critical of the Democrats in power, simply because we expect more of them. Kind of like you expect more of the bright kids in the class.
Once we get the Republicans out the focus needs to be to get Democrats moving in the direction we want to see the country go — better health care, more and better jobs, Congressional oversight, that sort of thing. That, after all, is why we want them in power. And if they don’t come through, well, we need to start putting people in Congress who will.
But one step at a time. Keep focused on the November elections, and then when those are done, we’ll move on to the next step.
I hope you are right, Booman.
Here is what I expect though: excuses and explanations from bloggers as to why, even though they are in power, the Dems can’t stray too far from political business as usual.
After all there is the 2008 election to think of. And Supreme Court appointees. “Surely we can tolerate a little obfuscation and corruption if it keeps the really bad people out of office.”
The Dems, as a whole, despise their base. So even if the blogs rail and rail at their behavior, I’m not sure they’d give a damn.
I hope I’m wrong about the Dems and their apologists. I hope we have the opportunity to find out.
I often think of Amy Goodman and the folks at Democracy Now as a great example of standing for principles rather than partisanship.
Our local NPR station picked up the show about a year ago, and conservative donors left in droves, protesting all the way. I found this ridiculous, because anyone who listened to the show int he 90s knows that they treated Bill Clinton every bit as badly as they do GWB.
Incidentally, DN has now become a fund-raising boon for the station, even in conservative NE TN. People have been dying for an uncompromising defense of progressive values – especially human rights – and now it’s drawn all of the closet leftists out of the woodwork.
These blogs must continue to have that same function – whether we win or not. I shudder at the thought of becoming the Democratic version of the 101st Flying Keyboardists, or whatever that shit is called. We won’t let it happen
when I see it.
who criticizes their team inbetween seasons?
You obviously don’t hang around with the same group of Seattle Mariners fans I do.
wish that the dems would put up a slate of what they are for so that voters could vote FOR someone. Claire is running on the stem cell issue and while I think it is worthwhile I truly think that Talent has not fulfilled his mandate in his job. He hasn’t been in hearings on the unbid contracts, he hasn’t held hearings on where all the reconstruction monies went, he hasn’t held hearings on why armoring the troops took so long and why getting the armor for the vehicles was just an afterthought. So while Claire is right to call him a rubber stamp, I am happier when she points out that he has not supported the troops.
But in the long run, we have to drive the corporate buck out of the system. Yes, there can be lobbyists, but GOD they should not be the ones writing the laws!